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Traditional pension plans, paid family leave, and even the company picnic are all on the decline. Employers have significantly cut many of the benefits they offer to workers over the past five years. Some 77 percent of companies report that benefits offerings have been negatively affected by the slow pace of recovery, according to a Society for Human Resource Management survey of 600 human resources professionals. "The two biggest areas where cuts have come have been in health care and retirement because that's where costs have increased the most," says Mark Schmit, research director of the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va. Here is a look at the...

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Traditional pension plans, paid family leave, and even the company picnic are all on the decline. Employers have significantly cut many of the benefits they offer to workers over the past five years. Some 77 percent of companies report that benefits...

When Kamela Beltran lost her third baby to yet another miscarriage, this one at 22 weeks of pregnancy, she was angry with God.
"I asked why. I didn't do drugs. I was married. I didn't have an abortion. Why is God doing this to me?" Beltran...

Antonitsa Vlahoulis knew as she slipped into unconsciousness on the operating room table that her surgeon would choose which medical device she would receive to fix her leaky heart valve.
But when a warranty card arrived in the mail for the device...

After 13 years of caring for her daughter, who woke up one morning when she was 5 with a headache and hasn't been able to walk or talk since, Pat Charleston has put her with about 300 others in a web registry of patients with mitochondrial diseases.
...

Now that organic beans sprouts grown in Germany have been pinpointed as the likely source of the European E. coli outbreak, consumers must confront growing doubts about the vegetable.
Although German officials believe most of the contaminated sprouts...

At a time of rising concern over pathogens in produce, Congress is moving to eliminate the only national program that regularly screens U.S. fruits and vegetables for the type of E. coli that recently caused a deadly outbreak in Germany.
The House last...

Inadequate staffing levels and lax supervision led to a series of alleged sexual attacks on youth at a prominent Chicago psychiatric hospital, according to a new report released Tuesday by the state Department of Children and Family Services.
Written...

Clusters of children without their required vaccinations in about 200 Illinois schools are raising the chances of school-based outbreaks of serious preventable diseases such as measles and whooping cough, a Tribune analysis of state data has found.
The...

Illinois' number of Hispanic women reporting that they were in fair or poor health was the highest in the nation, according to a 2009 study, and efforts are growing to figure out why.
Researchers want specifics on why 34.3 percent of Latino women in...

Cases of pertussis, a contagious disease that can be deadly for babies, is on the rise across all age groups in the United States because many adolescents and adults don't realize they need a booster vaccine to stay immunized.
"I think the problem...

The moment you step into oppressive heat, the body senses life-threatening danger and starts fighting to keep things cool.
The heart beats faster as it increases the flow of blood to the skin, trying to keep critical internal organs from overheating. But...

Tomas Rivera feels fortunate. He found a dentist in the Englewood neighborhood that his 6-year-old son adores.
"It's hard to find a good doctor. We got lucky with him," Rivera said.
It hasn't been easy. When the economy slowed, Rivera, 36,...

Thanks to a $374,000 taxpayer-funded grant, we now know that inhaling lemon and lavender scents doesn't do a lot for our ability to heal a wound. With $666,000 in federal research money, scientists examined whether distant prayer could heal AIDS. It could...

Hailey Davis, of far northwest suburban Huntley, went to the doctor's office hoping to get medication to stop her cough and runny nose.
She learned she didn't have the flu or a common cold. After a few doctor visits in late September, Davis, 18, was...

Friends and relatives caring for lung cancer patients have a new resource to turn to after the recent launch of a 24-hour online service for caregivers by LUNGevity Foundation, the country's largest lung cancer organization.
The foundation in late...

Orland Hills has a library board, but no library. Norwood Park has a paid three-member board with the sole job of overseeing 40 streetlights. And a southern Illinois tuberculosis board has amassed more than $200,000 yet it treats only one patient every...

Three area hospitals were recognized in a new nationwide survey for their treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients.
The Human Rights Campaign's Healthcare Equality Index 2011, released last week, cited Advocate Illinois Masonic...

America undoubtedly has a big obesity problem.
With two-thirds of all U.S. adults classified as obese or overweight, public health officials warn that much of the population is at dangerously high risk of diabetes, heart disease and other chronic and...

Among the hundreds of drastic and unproven weight loss plans, the controversial hCG diet may take the cake.
Discredited by researchers in the 1970s, the near-starvation diet restricts followers to 500 calories a day for six weeks. At the same time,...

The last time you wiped down your desk and shook crumbs from your keyboard was — yep, a year ago, when you knocked over a latte while munching a turkey croissant sandwich. Or was it after crunching through that bag of Cheetos? That's not good news if...